Senate Bill 14 - Status

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Senate Bill 14
Sponsors: Senators Davis, Ellis, Elton

"An Act raising the compulsory school attendance age; relating to the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; relating to duties of the Department of Education and Early Development; relating to truancy; and relating to employment of a minor."

2/12/08

Senate Bill 14  (Compulsory attendance / Truancy Bill) is back! The new revised version now includes two other bills (SB 10 and SB 31) that could compromise the freedom of homeschoolers. This will bill will be discussed on February 13 (THIS WEDNESDAY!) in the Senate Special Committee on Education.  This "new and revised" version seeks to raise the compulsory school attendance age to 18 (from 16), and to apprehend offenders who do not want to cooperate. 

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The following note was an answer to a question regarding status sent to an AHEA board member on August 16th.

"The way it is coming down right now is that SB 14 will be replaced by a committee substitute (cs) bill that will incorporate SB 10, SB 14 and SB 31. This committee substitute bill won't be available to see until 8:00 this Wednesday, April 18, at the SB 14 hearing when Sen. Davis will introduce the substitute bill. You can see discussion of this in the text of the testimony at the hearing on SB 10 on March 28th.

It seems just a little imprudent to hold a hearing on a bill that isn't available to the populace to analyze and be prepared to comment on."

Terry (member of APHEA)

Final Status: The bill was held in the Senate Education Committee. The legislative session has ended; Senator Davis is committed to reintroduction of the bill in 2008. See note (italics) below.

Text of hearings on April 18, 2007

Audio of Senate Special Committee on Education - April 18, 2007

From text of hearings on April 18, 2007: (Note: This comment is not exactly what is on the audio tape of the meeting; however, the legislators are given a copy of the notes before they are recorded and it is very good news that the notes were modified to reflect her desire to meet with all in the community!)

SENATOR DAVIS said that she received many emails from home-
schooling parents, and there may be a misunderstanding about the
goal of the bill. The regulation is needed in state law to
improve consistency, and there are many reasons to increase the
compulsory attendance age; there are sufficient exceptions in
state law to address home-schooling parents' concerns. She
commented on the compulsory age for commencement of public
school, which is seven years of age. The truancy and dropout
issues start early in education; having a community committee
working on these issues will help change the school system for
the better. Forcing students to attend regular school isn't a
good solution; it needs to be more comprehensive. A diploma is a
necessary element of success in life.

She added that she'll be willing to keep working on the bill and
change it to make it better for everyone; she wants to hear from
as many community voices as possible.